Overtime surge for Chicago police

Far more officers will be asked to work on their days off to combat increase in slayings

A police car turns the corner onto the 1600 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, which was the scene of an overnight police-involved shooting of a robbery suspect Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Chicago. (John J. Kim)

Chicago police plan to double the number of officers working overtime on their days off beginning Friday in an effort to tamp down the number of homicides plaguing the city, the Tribune has learned.

Police brass have told subordinates that 400 rank-and-file officers and 40 sergeants will be needed every day of the week as part of the department's overtime violence-reduction initiative to supplement the thousands of officers working their usual shifts, according to sources. Since the initiative began last summer, an average of 200 officers and about 20 sergeants were needed for overtime shifts five days out of the week.

The beefed-up overtime effort comes as police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Mayor Rahm Emanuel face pressure to address the city's increasing number of homicides. Last year Chicago exceeded 500 homicides for the first time since 2008, and January had 42 killings, the most for that month since 2002. The Jan. 29 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an honor student, has brought international attention to Chicago's rampant gun violence.

McCarthy on Friday hinted to a state legislator who asked for a bigger police presence in the crime-plagued Englewood neighborhood that help was on the way.

"First of all, stand by," McCarthy said during a House hearing on gun legislation in downtown Chicago. "You're about to see a lot of officers walking the beat. It's another strategy."

Asked how the cash-strapped city will afford an increase in the number of officers paid time-and-half for overtime, mayoral spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton pointed out that Emanuel included an overtime surge as part of his 2013 budget.

But the mayor's budget plan calls for only year-round weekend police surges. In addition, Emanuel's budget for police overtime rose this year to $32 million, up only $3 million from 2012, according to city budget documents. And that's still less than the $33.7 million the department spent on overtime in 2011, documents show.

The Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents rank-and-file Chicago police officers, didn't support the overtime initiative when it took effect last June, calling instead for the city to hire more officers.

Yet on Friday, FOP President Michael Shields credited the initiative, which is voluntary for officers, with bringing the percentage increase in homicides down during the second half of 2012. By April, homicides had soared as high as 66 percent before falling to a 16 percent spike by year's end.

Members of the City Council Black Caucus, however, are signaling limits to their patience with the Police Department's current approach to crime. They met Thursday with Emanuel's top political operative to express their concerns.

"The message was we were getting heat from our communities," said Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, who questioned McCarthy's strategies. "It doesn't appear to be working. ... We're not police officers, but if there's 40 murders in January, what the hell is going to happen when it's warm on the streets?"

As recently as December, McCarthy and the mayor were insisting that his police strategies were taking hold and that calls to beef up the size of the force were misdirected.

Yet in late January, McCarthy moved 200 officers off desk duty to expand teams that saturate crime hot spots. A couple of days later, he ended police response to some 911 calls to keep the equivalent of 44 more officers a day on the street.

The city plans to hire enough officers this year to maintain the overall force at about 12,500, which would be a slight increase from fall of 2012.

McCarthy has said the recent changes are just tweaks to his strategy, not wholesale changes. He continually points out the city has a higher number of officers per capita than any other of the 10 largest U.S. cities. But a recent report from the city inspector general also noted that Chicago has the fewest number of civilian police department employees of any of those cities.

Ald. Willie Cochran, 20th, said Friday that all the money going toward overtime amounts to an acknowledgment by the department "that we need more police on the street."

"This isn't a temporary problem, so rather than treating it like it's temporary by paying officers overtime, the city should hire more police," said Cochran, a former Chicago police officer.

For the first time, detectives will be able to work on their days off under the expanded initiative, according to a department memo obtained by the Tribune.

The department has offered many overtime initiatives through the years — at times to boost patrols of public housing complexes and CTA train lines, often with federal money. But veteran officers said they have never seen such an expanded citywide effort for this length of time.

"At some point the department will discontinue this," said the FOP's Shields. "At that point, the department must have an adequate (number) of new hires."